HSBC technical glitch hits 275,000 payments

A fault in the information used to process some payments from HSBC business customers has affected about 275,000 payments, a media report said.

The company, in a statement on Friday, said the problem was caused by a flaw in information included in a file submitted to Bacs, the system British banks use to process millions of direct debits and direct credits, Xinhua reported.

This payments system failure made some companies could not pay wages to staff or to settle invoices. The fault also affected some customers of HSBC who could not transfer to clients of other banks.

HSBC has apologised for the payments system failure and promised to investigate alternative ways to ensure credits are received.